Your Money and Ideas for Video Product Creation

Lately, I’ve been listening to Dave Ramsey on radio. If you don’t know the guy, check him out at his website: http://www.DaveRamsey.com.

A few days back I gave a young coaching client of mine this advice. I told him to remember three things:

1. Live BELOW your means.
2. NEVER go into debt.
3. ALWAYS do what you love to do.

if you do numbers 1 and 2, it’s MUCH easier to do #3.

Ramsey is one of those guys who advocates debt free living and I concur. Only recently has he convinced me of the virtue of paying off my mortgages.

I always thought that since the government subsidizes up to a million dollars in mortgage interest on either one or two homes, it was a wise idea to carry them.

I no longer feel that way.

As I’ve said before, I try to make every big purchase that I make REVENUE NEUTRAL. That means that each of my places (now 3) should pay for itself.

Las Vegas and NYC do, the place in California does not. There are reasons for that, but it still bugs me.

BUT, what if all of these mortgages were paid off? Then, all the monies that came in as a result of owning them would be pure profit. Much better.

So, my plan is to pay off all the mortgages as quickly as possible. What’s the time frame? Irrelevant. But, it will get done.

As an info product marketer this would give me even MORE freedom. And frankly, that’s what it’s all about (IMHO). Freedom to go where you want, live where you want and hang out with the people you want to.

A mentor of mine, Ken Roberts, always talks about the concept of a 50% retracement in any market.

Given that the Dow Jones has dropped close to 40%, according to my buddy Ken, we still have 10% to go.

I’m not a financial advisor or prognosticator, but the concept of 50% retracement has served many people very well.

You can never guess the exact BOTTOM or TOP of a market.

All I can tell you is this. I ALWAYS buy things on sale. Whether it’s a house or a stock, they are now on sale. The big question is whether or not they have been marked down as far as they are going to go. That, I’m sorry to say, would require a crystal ball.

For the upcoming info products event in NJ, I have to buy some additional equipment. I’d like to explain what I bought, why I bought it and when and where you may need to do the same.

If you are going to capture an event on video you will usually have at least one camera and a computer signal that you have to mix.

At a minimum you’ll want to “switch” between what the camera is capturing and what your presenters are showing on the screen via their computers.

You can certainly pay for a fancy schmancy video switching system. I bought a used one on Ebay from Videonics a few years back. Even that system cost me over $500. A similar product from Edirol will run you close to $2000.

These systems will give you all the elaborate transitions when you move between the different signals that are coming into the video mixer. Granted, the unit I bought or the Edirol will allow you to “mix” 4 different signals.

BUT, if all you want is a simple system to go between what is being captured on the camera and what is being projected from a computer. That’s overkill.

All you need is a video SWITCHING device. This device let’s you switch back and forth between two (or more if you get a different model unit) different incoming signals.

The product I got cost $199. Here is what it is: CVG-SW21S Vertical Interval Switcher, 2×1 I got it at B&H Photo. I recommend them. I get nothing from this.

It allows you/me to go back and forth between two devices. In the finished product this will look what’s called a “Jump Cut”. It’s fine for any/all educational or product videos that you produce.

If you want to do things on the LOW end, here are some suggestions:

1. Buy a decent little camcorder. If it records onto a hard drive it will make it so you don’t have to import the video into your computer in real time.

2. Make sure that there is a separate audio input. You will get really crappy audio if all you do is use the built in mic on a camcorder. People will be really pissed off if they buy a video where you used the built in mic. You’ll get returns!

3. Don’t worry about using a fancy video editing program. All you need is something simple like IMovie. I confess I don’t know the equivalent program for a PC.

4. Try and record in either 60 minute or 90 minute segments. This will allow you to put each section on a separate DVD. Do NOT use a DVD for more than 2 hours at a time.

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